Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Inovation Ctr. Yesterday. Pile driver moved onto the site. New signs added to the fence.
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Seaport Inovation Ctr. 4/29 by snagshead67, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
New Park (?) under construction. New fence and earth moving equipment moved onto the lot next to 22 Boston Wharf Rd. What was a paved parking lot is now all dug up. Site trailer is across the street in the foreground.
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New Seaport Park 4/29 by snagshead67, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
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Oh goodie, if they start park construction now, it will follow tradition and open just in time for winter.
 
IAM thinkin ^^^ pictura lOOooksing like der FLAKTURM und der GEFECHTSTURM!!!
ALsbert SpEaR desIngning this SUDbosTonUferGEGegend

So
 
Cambridge’s Ironwood weighs move to Seaport
By Greg Turner
Wednesday, May 9, 2012


Seaport Square’s master builder plans to sell off a piece of the 20-block project to a biotech lab developer in a deal that could bring the next Vertex Pharmaceuticals to the South Boston waterfront.

Longfellow Real Estate Partners expects to finalize a land acquisition in September and construct a 900,000-square-foot “build-to-suit” lab and office complex on Seaport Boulevard.

“We’re in discussions with a number of tenants that are interested in the space,” said Adam Sichol, principal at Winchester-based Longfellow. “There are many tenants in the market right now that need significant amounts of space.”

Sichol declined to name potential tenants, but multiple real estate sources say Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is a top contender as the Cambridge firm hunts for 500,000 square feet of space.

If Ironwood pulled up stakes in Kendall Square for Seaport Square, the shift would mirror Vertex’s milestone move across the river from Cambridge to new headquarters now under construction at Joe Fallon’s Fan Pier.

“Cambridge is a very hot lab market, but Vertex proved there’s another place to be,” said John Fowler, executive managing director at HFF, a commercial mortgage brokerage that secured financing for the Vertex project. “If Ironwood comes, that would just help establish the area as one of the up-and-coming life sciences locations.”

Michael Higgins, Ironwood’s chief operating officer, declined to comment on the Seaport speculation but said the 300-person company is in the “early days” of evaluating available expansion spaces in Cambridge, Boston and Waltham.

Ironwood has been in hiring mode and may be just months away from winning Food and Drug Administration approval for its first drug, a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and chronic constipation that analysts say could become a $1 billion-a-year blockbuster.

Vertex’s 1.1 million-square-foot, two-building Fan Pier lease was contingent on the company winning FDA approval for its strong-selling hepatitis C drug Incivek. Since then, Vertex has also won approval for a cystic fibrosis drug, Kalydeco, and its shares soared this week on positive results from a broader two-drug CF treatment.

Longfellow’s two-building complex, known as blocks L1 and L2 on the Seaport Square plan, would rise at one end of an 8-acre parking lot.

“We think the Seaport is a really exciting market to be in,” Sichol said. “It’s really the only market that’s ripe for big construction projects.”

The team at Longfellow, formed three years ago, includes former principals of Lyme Properties, which developed Genzyme’s Kendall Square headquarters as well as an eight-story building for Vertex now owned by BioMed Realty Trust.

Seaport’s developers — Boston Global Investors, led by John Hynes, and equity partner Morgan Stanley — sold two parcels late last year to make way for a hotel project next to the Barking Crab restaurant and a 14-story apartment complex on Boston Wharf Road. Hynes could not be reached for comment.

Last week, the $3 billion Seaport Square finally celebrated its first groundbreaking, for the Boston Innovation Center, on a lot across from the Longfellow project.


Link
 
Wow, you're fast.

Three questions I have about this. Boston Global Investors and Morgan Stanley appear to be selling off a piece of the Seaport Square plot of land.

1) Was this expected, and/or, assumed to be going to happen? Did people who do this sort of thing always expect John Hynes would sell of pieces of the pie? They sold off some of the buildings in the nearby Boston Wharf district, owned by Goldman Properties.

2) The Herald article says that the development next to the Barking Crab, the parcel of land on which an apartment complex and hotel will be built, was sold by Seaport Square, last year. That's news to me - I thought he was still building it, himself.

3) The Boston Innovation Center is supposed to be a temporary building, right?
 
JohnAKeith said:
Wow, you're fast.

Three questions I have about this. Boston Global Investors and Morgan Stanley appear to be selling off a piece of the Seaport Square plot of land.

1) Was this expected, and/or, assumed to be going to happen? Did people who do this sort of thing always expect John Hynes would sell of pieces of the pie? They sold off some of the buildings in the nearby Boston Wharf district, owned by Goldman Properties.

2) The Herald article says that the development next to the Barking Crab, the parcel of land on which an apartment complex and hotel will be built, was sold by Seaport Square, last year. That's news to me - I thought he was still building it, himself.

3) The Boston Innovation Center is supposed to be a temporary building, right?
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John -- the Hotel site was discussed on a thread here a few weeks ago
The Innovation Center is temporary in the context of 5 to 7 years or so as the Seaport Sq. builds out its lots

Note the 900,000 sq ft complex is going to be one huge building or two as the height is limited and the floor plates will be very large - say 40,000 sq ft or more
 
Seaport’s developers — Boston Global Investors, led by John Hynes, and equity partner Morgan Stanley — sold two parcels late last year to make way for a hotel project next to the Barking Crab restaurant and a 14-story apartment complex on Boston Wharf Road. Hynes could not be reached for comment.
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I wonder if this is going to become the trend. If so, it would be a very good thing, because it will help to lessen the likelihood of megablocks and bland architecture that comes with a single developer mega project.
 
Too bad there's not many developers in Boston who aren't interested in bland architecture, though. I predict same result, different profiteers.
 
The Parking Lot King........LOL Truly priceless


Frank McCourt: Businessman of the year?
May 7, 2012 | By Matthew DeBord

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. He sold the team, but kept the parking lots, to the tune of $14 million a year.
Now that the Los Angeles Dodgers have been officially sold, for the record-setting price of $2 billion, we can, without emotion, consider the accomplishment of former owner Frank McCourt.

You'd have to seriously consider him for the title of businessman of the year. Seriously.

Why? Because in 2004, McCourt bought the Dodgers for $430 million, using effectively none of his own money. After satisfying the various debts related to the team as it emerged from bankruptcy court into the arms of Magic Johnson's ownership group, Guggenheim Baseball Management (GMB), McCourt should clear something like $1 billion. He had to pay his ex-wife $131 million in their divorce settlement — but the side deal he did for the Dodger Stadium parking lots amounted to $3 billion, split between himself and what has been described as an "entity" associated with the new owners. At $150 million, his half wound up being worth close to $20 million more than Jamie's payout.

Ah, the parking lots. McCourt wisely placed them under the umbrella of ownership completely distinct from the Dodgers. So while the team went into Chapter 11, the parking lots did not. McCourt kept them as a bargaining chip and as a way to stay in the game, continuing to capitalize on the future success of the Dodgers franchise. As Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners and GBM's main money guy, phrased it, going forward McCourt has an "economic" interest in the lots — meaning that if they do get developed at some point, he's in.

And even thought GBM will be dropping the parking fee for games to $10 from $15, much of that money will still go to McCourt, who according the the L.A. Times now has a 99-year lease administered to by McCourt and the GBM-affiliated company, worth $14 million annually (at the moment — it will certainly adjust up in the future). So I guess you could say that GBM is paying rent to itself, along with McCourt.

At L.A. Weekly (via the Huffington Post), Gene Maddaus is not happy.

There are two takeaways here. First, McCourt obviously isn't going quietly. Second...Man, does this guy love parking lots or what?

Forget the $5 billion in potential broadcast rights that GBM could secure (and that's the real payoff in the $2-billion purchase deal). I'm not even sure that McCourt was ever really interested in owning a professional baseball team. You could easily understand this entire saga — the move from Boston, where of course McCourt made his initial fortune on...parking lots; the divorce melodrama; the spat with MLB commissioner Bud Selig; the shocking sale to Magic & Co. — as a play for the Dodger Stadium parking lots.

Where one man sees acres of gridded asphalt, baking under a hot California sun, Frank McCourt sees a shimmering Elysium of capitalist opportunity.

He got everything he could have possibly wanted out of this deal. And, it must be pointed out, one thing that he truly loves.

Lots. Glorious, expansive, cash-flow-generating parking lots.

Follow Matthew DeBord and the DeBord Report on Twitter.
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http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2012/05/07/5998/frank-mccourt-businessman-year/
 
Wow! It's like a mirror!

From Boston.com - Boston Redevelopment Authority design for the Seaport District, 1997

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From Google Maps, ~2012

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Wow! Who knew they were secretly building that shitty 90s design all along?
 
i actually like what they did with the bridge in the model, permanently open, with new walkways added on. Possibly put some sort of small stores in it.
 
Why was the Courthouse built in that location? That property is priceless and so much more valuable to the private sector. Who in their right mind would OK putting a public sector courthouse on the water.

Its like the public housing in E.Boston. They have the best view of the city. That land alone is worth a ton.
 
The problem with that logic is that pretty much anywhere convenient for government services will also have high land values. Sure, we could stick them all somewhere shitty to save taxpayer money, but it's going to suck for those that have to use them. And remember -- those that have to use government offices and courthouses, etc., include businesses (ask any litigation-heavy law firm about proximity to a courthouse). The land around the courthouse would inevitably become valuable anyway, and removing a courthouse to a remote location would be a drag on legal services and the local economy as a whole.

That said, did it need to be on the waterfront as opposed to a few blocks inland? No. It was put there to please powerful judges who wanted a pretty water view.
 
probably not a major coincidence that a major law firm is the largest occupant of Fan Pier.

Also, the courthouse is well on its way to becoming the nicest part of the area. open park with great view, restaurant.
 
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